Saints Go Marching In To The Big Show

No longer the "aints", The Who Dats, National Conference Champions, are marching into the Superbowl for the first time ever.


Since the 1967 season, when I was 15 years old, true Saints fans have been waiting for this. Those of us who remember the first ever game when John Gilliam took the opening kickoff 94 yards for the first ever New Orleans Saints touchdown for the only Saints highlight of that loss to the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane University Stadium where home games were played until 1974 before moving to the Louisiana Superdome in 1975.


Their first season record was 3–11, which set an NFL record for most wins by an expansion team. However, things went down hill after that. The Saints didn't even have a season where they were .500 until 1979. One of the team's shining moments came on November 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record-breaking 63-yard field goal to defeat the Detroit Lions by a score of 19-17 in the final seconds of the game.


The first successful years were from 1987–1992, when the team made the playoffs four times and had winning records in the non-playoff seasons. But it wasn't until the 2000 season that the Saints won their first playoff game, defeating the then-defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams.


2005 brought Hurricane Katrina which caused damage to the Superdome and the Saints became the road warriors for the entire season playing their home games between LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge and the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. But the Saints returned to the Dome in 2006 on fire, going all the way to the NFC Championship game before losing to the Chicago Bears.


The 2009 season was the team's best season. The Saints started the season going 13-0, the best start to a season in its franchise history. Saints also set the record for the longest undefeated season opening (13-0) by an NFC team since the AFL–NFL merger, eclipsing the previous record (12-0) held by the 1985 Chicago Bears. They went more than 10 years before they managed to finish a season with a .500 record, 20 years before a winning season, and over 40 years before reaching the Super Bowl. So when you see a Saint Fan being loud and bragging, remember we haven't been here before, so we don't know how to act like we've been here before. There is still room on the Saints bandwagon, but all the long time Saints Fan, who endured the years in the wilderness get to ride up front and I'm driving!!!


Curt Warner, Brett Farve,...Peyton Manning your next.